Transcript

00:00:02

>> Pakistan ruling party taking a stand on pardons for murder. Officials say a bill to outlaw so called honor killings will go before parliament as early as Thursday. After social media star Qandeel Baloch was strangled to death by her brother. Hundreds of women are victims of honor killings every year, but a legal loop hole has allowed many killers to go unpunished.

00:00:22

The government say it wants to put an end to that. But as Mehreen Zahra-Malik explains, changing the law and changing people's mindsets are two very different things.>> You are fundamentally altering the Pakistan penal codes that no family can ever again forgive a son, a brother, an uncle for so called honor killing.

00:00:39

At the legal level then, you're closing that door forever. But that's when the real deaths begin. You have the law, but can you enforce it. Backers of this law will say that it's only when you literally start sending men to jail for long periods of time can you change the mentality that you can get away with murder in the name of honor.

00:00:56

Otherwise, what would stop them from killing?>> Pakistan's two main religious parties oppose legislation empowering women. But at least one of them has said it won't vote against the bill. Qandeel's case has rallied strong support and there's little doubt who the bad guy is.>> As far as support for her brother's concerned there's almost no public support for him.

00:01:17

In fact in an interview with a powerful group that advises the government on the compatibility of laws of Islam they said that honor killing is a crime.>> Officials say that once a bill is approved, it will go to a vote in a couple of weeks. Pakistan has made noises about changing the law on honor killings in the past to little effect.

00:01:36

But a senior official tells Reuters the proposal is now backed by all major parties.